Gwen Barr

Hello, I’m Gwen Barr, a Cognitive Hypnotherapist based in the beautiful town of Kirriemuir in Angus, Scotland. Here is a little bit of information about me and why I do this wonderful job of Cognitive Hypnotherapy.

I guess I’m all about ‘transformation’ really.

My initial careers centred around my interest in buildings and spaces and feeling the complete joy in taking an old, disused, forgotten about building and bringing it back to life through my interior design work.

Later, as an exhibition designer, I was privileged enough to work with incredible people and help them tell the stories of their artefacts by finding innovative ways to communicate ideas with the public audience. At this point, I got very interested in people and how best to explain ideas and concepts. This interest led me into the world of psychology and my quest to understand how and why our brains work as they do. I began to want to share this knowledge with people and instead of transforming buildings as I had previously done, I wanted to focus on how to help people reach their full potential and live their best possible life. I pursued training and qualified as a coach, but I felt I still needed more skills to help people shift their problems so they could move forward in life.

My path to hypnotherapy was actually not a deliberate one at all! It happened when I attended a class for stress management, only to find out that the instructor was in fact a clinical hypnotherapist! During the course of 8 weeks, I witnessed the most incredible changes in me and my fellow classmates and realised the power the mind has over our bodies and how we can take control. If I needed further proof of the power of hypnosis, I was to get it when I used it during the preparation and birth of my daughter.

The midwives were astonished by my rapid progress and calmness throughout. It also really helped me with pain relief as I never felt the need for any pain medication except for a TENS machine. By this point, I reckoned people ought to know how effective and helpful hypnotherapy could be and I set about looking for the best formal training I could find. I found my answer in the internationally renowned Quest Institute at Regents University in London, where I was taught by the founder of Cognitive Hypnotherapy, Trevor Silvester.

I gained my diploma with Distinction which was validated by the National Council of Hypnotherapy.

I am a member of Quest Cognitive Hypnotherapy Practitioners Association (QCHPA) and the Complimentary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC – a government body set up to support complimentary therapies). I abide by their strict code of ethics and I am also fully insured.

I appreciate that to make a first step into anything can take courage, and I fully respect that by providing a confidential, friendly and compassionate hypnotherapy service.

You will often see letters after a therapists name and you may have noticed mine. Here is an explanation:

DipCHyp – Diploma in Cognitive Hypnotherapy. This is the qualification awarded by The Quest Institute, the leading hypnotherapy training organisation which pioneered Cognitive Hypnotherapy.

HPD – Hypnotherapy Practitioners Diploma – the qualification verified by the National Council of Hypnotherapy (NCH).This is the only independently accredited, professional standard qualification of Hypnotherapy in the UK.

NLP – Neuro-Linguistic Programming Practitioner. Accredited by the Quest Institute, NLP is widely used in coaching, psychotherapy and personal development training and is used to effect change by offering the brain alternative thinking strategies for a more enjoyable life.

QCHPA – Member of the Quest Cognitive Hypnotherapy Practitioners Association.

CNHC – I am on the CNHC’s Accredited Register. The CNHC (Complimentary and Natural Healthcare Council – a government body set up to support complimentary therapies).